New funding the cat’s miaow for pet helpers

KEEPING pets and their owners together is a specialty of Bendigo Animal Welfare and Community Services, president Debbie Edwards says.A new grant from the Bendigo Uniting Care Outreach Board, Ms Edwards says, will help organisation to reduce the number of pets being surrendered by their owners.“It will help us support our community support programs in providing assistance to disadvantaged pet owners,” she said.“If we can keep people from surrendering their pets by covering the cost of keeping their pets, the better it is. It’s about keeping the pet and the person together.”Ms Edwards said the organisation provided assistance to help cover veterinary bills and emergency accommodation for pets. “It can be anything from minor care such as vaccines to minor procedures like desexing,” she said.“In some cases we can help to the extent of live-saving operations, (like) major dental work to help a pet.”Ms Edwards said that after the January floods Bendigo Animal Welfare and Community Services had provided emergency accommodation for pets whose owners were getting back on their feet.“This is the second year that Outreach have helped us out. We expect this time because we’ve been given a bigger grant we’ll be able to help even more people.”